The Way of Surviving High School: Book 1
Chapter 1 Moving. Troy never liked moving, he liked where he lived, and didn’t think anything was wrong about the town he lived in. Troy moved a lot due to his parents’ jobs and he was really getting sick of it, this was his 5th time moving and it wasn’t the last. Troy began to walk on steps and opened the door the slowly. Teens bustling around the halls murmuring and gossiping about one another were few things that he saw. He came across a beautiful and kind girl named Marisia, who was in a red plaid shirt and blue jeans. “Hello, my name is Marisia, welcome to Bridgewood. What’s your name?” Marisia said in a cheerful tone. “My name is Troy, nice to meet you-” Before Troy could finish; a large figure came and shoved him into the locker. “Why are you talking to my girl?” The lean figure said with an aggressive yet nice tone. “Well I just wanted to get to know her…” “Don’t ever speak to her again!” Troy was trying to say calm throughout the situation. “Josh, leave him alone!” said Marisia hesitantly. “What if I don’t?” Troy said in a serious tone, even though he was scared out of his mind. “You asked for it!” Josh prepared for the punch, but a young man stopped the fight by catching the figure’s fist. “Leave him alone Josh.” The strange young man was staring into the large figure’s eyes. “Entran, why are you defending the new kid? I thought we were friends!” “Not anymore.” Entran cleaned Troy up and led him down the hallway. “Are you ok man?” “Yeah…why did you help me?” Troy was suspicious of the young man, but still remembered he saved him earlier. “Josh can be a huge jerk at times.” “At times?” “Yeah, he’s in the football team, he’s pretty aggressive. I’m also in the team.” “Oh that’s awesome, what are you?” Troy started thinking about football, but quickly stopped. “I’m the linebacker and Josh is defense. I need to get to class soon, see ya later.” Troy’s day was as weird as it could get in his mind, but it was only the beginning. He checked his schedule and he went to his first class: Social Studies. He walked into the classroom and many faces turned and stared. “Class this is your newest classmate Troy, please treat him well and make him feel comfortable in Bridgewood High.” Troy sat down to a peculiar fellow; he had a shaggy afro and stubs on his chin. He had a bag of chips on his desk and a slice of pizza next to it which really caught Troy’s attention. “Hey nice to meet you, my name is Troy and yours?” “Hey man, names Zach, welcome to Bridgewood High! Like where did you come from?” The young man was enthusiastic, you could really tell by the tone of his voice. “I came from Greenway High, have you heard of it?” Troy asked. “No not really, but I’m like really hungry now man. When’s lunch?” Troy was really fascinated about Zach’s love and craving for food, he didn’t even love food that much. “Mr. Archello, are you paying attention? If you are you can answer the question on the board.” Zach quickly gestured Troy the answer and he nodded. “Sure. The answer is The Battle of Gettysburg that happened in 1863.” Troy wasn’t too focused in the class, but he knew his history. “Correct. You are paying attention young one….” Mr. Donatello said. Troy and Zach give each other high fives and continued to socialize. As Troy and Zach talked throughout that period, they found out that they both had a lot in common; one of the things was eating. They spoke on and on about the different types of foods that they liked, most of them were junk foods, but they didn’t mind that at all. “Man, pizza is the best food ever, like you can’t deny that!” Zach said in an enthusiastic tone. “Pizza is alright, but I really love tacos, I used to get some every weekend at Grande Taco.” Memories went rushing through Troy’s mind; his past was coming back and hugging him with a tight grip. He remembered his old friends and mostly his old life; there were some things that he didn’t want to remember though. He was in the football team and he was a great quarterback, but it happened. He never spoke of it to anyone, because it scarred him. “Troy, are you there buddy? Troy?” Troy snapped out of his trance and said “Yeah, I was just thinking about things.” Zach was suspicious about Troy, there was something odd about him, he didn’t seem normal. Troy flipped his short brown hair and walked onto fitness with Zach, the sight was not pleasant. The students were running around the gym, sweating from the humidity of the room itself. “So you’re Mr. Archello…And why are you late to my class?” “Sorry Mr….” “It’s Mr. Vertexy, you still have a long way to go kid, this isn’t play time this is fitness!” The teacher was not the average teacher, he had a developed muscular body and his voice wasn’t so pleasant. “And for Zach, why are you late to my class….Again!?” “Well sir…I was like helping Troy around the school…my apologies sir.” Zach seemed very afraid for some reason, but before Troy could ask him… “As a punishment for being late, I want both of you to run 3 laps more than everyone else! It doesn’t matter to me if you’re new, old, or just in between, no one is late to MY Fitness class! Troy and Zach began to run like their lives depended on it, Troy surprisingly passed Zach and kept continuing without hesitating. “Troy can you come back here?” Mr. Vertexy asked with an angry tone. Troy was freaked out of his mind, he was already afraid of Mr. Vertexy, and didn’t want to upset him. “I see that you run incredibly fast, did you play sports at your old school?” Troy hesitantly answered immediately after. “No. I don’t play a lot of sports sir…” “Well I was wondering if you would like to join our school’s football team, you would be a great asset to us.” Mr. Vertexy replied in a cheerful tone. Troy then confirmed his answer, “I don’t really play sports sir, like I said earlier. “ Troy was extremely nervous and you could tell by the tone he had on his voice. “Well that’s a shame. If you change your mind, come back here to talk to me and we’ll figure out a spot for you…Tryouts are afterschool. Today.” A vague memory rushed through Troy’s head: Rushing through a field and he’s running, it’s vague and he sees two figures…. “You there man?” It was the young man who defended him earlier, Entran. “Yeah! Sorry about that, sometimes I go off track..man am I not thinking right today? Haha.” Troy continued to do the exercise he was assigned to do, but thoughts crashed into his brain, bringing back some of his darkest memories. Fitness came and went. Then it was lunch. Troy stared at the floor as he ate his peanut butter and jelly sandwich; he felt alone and incompetent. “Hey buddy, like can you lend me a hand here?” Zach had a sandwich that was piled up with all the condiments you could possibly name. “I think you might need more than a hand to keep that up.” Troy laughed after his joke and said “Thanks for cheering me up today.” Zach was unsure of what he meant, “How did I cheer you up buddy?” “Well I wasn’t in a good mood and you really helped me get out of a dark hole.” They both laughed and continued their lunches, as they were talking about other things, the same girl from earlier, Marisia, came out of nowhere. “Troy…I’m sorry about earlier…I didn’t mean to get you in so much trouble with Josh.” Zach jumped out of his seat and said, “J-j-j-j-Josh?! He’s a bad dude man…what happened?!” Troy calmed Zach down and replied, “Nothing..he just tried to beat me up because I was talking to Marisia..” “Oh I thought….WHAT?! Josh tried to fight you?!” “Yeah, don’t worry about it man..that guy Entran helped me out, I never really thanked him for it.” Troy replied with ease and thought. “Can I sit with you guys today? I’m pretty much alone since all of my “friends” went to the mall.” Zach was blown out of his mind; he didn’t know what to say anymore. “First, this new kid called Troy comes in the school. Next he meets one of the most popular girls at school and she wants to talk to him. Now Josh is mad at this guy, Marisia is sitting with us, and I’m in the middle of this puzzle! Wow!” Thoughts rampaged through his mind as he ate his overly ginormous sandwich. Surprisingly, Entran was the next person to come to the table with a sandwich in his hand. “Can this fest get any weirder?!” Said Zach in a jokingly way. “Hey Troy, Paz, and Marisia, can I sit here too? I just need a break from the jocks. They’re irritating me.” As Entran sat down an annoying, girly voice was heard from a megaphone, “HEEEEYYY Bridgewood! Today is going to be a buistacular day, with football and cheerleader tryouts! I’m your Student Body President Becky Baker and I hope you all have a fabtabulous day!” Troy was very annoyed after that and asked “Who the heck is that?” “She’s the Student Body President man! She has a lot of power and can get whatever she wants, whenever.” After Zach finished he began to shiver, then Marisia finally continued, “She’s one of my friends, and she’s the leader of the cheerleaders. I really want to tryout, but I don’t think I’ll make the cut.” Troy quickly replied, “You can do anything Marisia, don’t ever underestimate your limits. You seem like a nice and awesome girl who can do the impossible.” Marisia was astonished with Troy’s statement, she didn’t really know the young man, but she thought he was incredibly nice. “So…Troy, are you going to sign up for the football team? You seem like you’re an athlete.” A confident Entran asked. “I don’t play sports…” “Try it out, you’ll love it. You could try for quarterback!” Troy tried his best to be uninterested, but he surrendered. “Alright, you win. I’ll try out for quarterback.” The same vision came through Troy’s mind, him going for the touchdown and….He tried to forget, but it continued to torment and mock him. Chapter 2 The rest of the school went by like a flash, Troy and Entran were going walking towards the football field, and both of them did not say a word. They tried to say a word, but they stopped themselves and continued to trot in a continuous pace. Out of nowhere, Zach came with a family sized bag of chips and broke the ice between the two. “Why are you two so silent,” he continued to eat his chips “You guys can do this, I believe you two can…Oh and can you pass me your bag Troy?” Troy slowly gave his bag to Zach and he opened it slowly to reveal a half-eaten sandwich. “Why do you have a half-eaten sandwich in my bag?” Zach quickly replied “Dude your backpack is just right…It does the job every time.” He began to eat the oversized sandwich and everything was silent until they got to the football field. The view was terrifying to Zach and he hid behind Troy, he didn’t want to be a part of anything that was going on there. Troy didn’t notice Zach until later, but he had a look of determination in his face. The young men were running and colliding onto one another like a pack of wolves hunting their prey. As soon as Mr. Vertexy saw Troy he ran the fastest he could to greet him, he wasn’t expecting him, but he was still overjoyed. “You made it! What are you trying out for kid?” Troy tried to reply as confidently as he could, but he was too scared too, “I’m trying out for quarterback sir.” As Mr. Vertexy continued, a familiar voice came up behind Troy and he wasn’t too excited. “Hey… I heard you were talking to Marisia, is it true you excuse of an athlete? Troy quickly retorted, “Yeah I did and dude… can you brush your teeth after this? I think you stained my shirt.” Josh was not pleased at all, he did not move or say anything for a couple of seconds and then he finally said something, “Good luck chump, I hope you don’t get pumbled out there!” Troy knew he was being sarcastic, so he made a quick remark. “I hope you don’t lose your slipper Cinderella!” Zach finally came out from hiding as Josh left; he was frightened; he didn’t want to be involved in this at all. “Wow Troy…you got Josh good.” Entran was mind blown; he never really saw anyone talk back to Josh, if you did it wouldn’t end well for you. It was time for tryouts and it isn’t going to end pretty. .. “1-2-3-4, who’s going to beat the Bulls, Bridgewood!” Marisia was ready for tryouts, but there were some things going through her mind. She began to worry about Troy; she was worried that Josh would end up crippling him or even worse. She went to the sign-up table and she saw a familiar face; it was her childhood friend Norma. They were the best of friends during elementary and middle school, but began to separate during high school. She approached her old friend but things didn’t go to her liking. “Hey Marisia! Are we still going shopping later?” It was Becky Baker and she was going to get what she wanted. “I’m not sure; I’m going somewhere else after this…” Before Becky replied, a bell rang which meant tryouts are beginning. Marisia was hesitant and began to walk back, but before she could walk out, someone touched her shoulder. “Where are you going? Let’s do this Marisia.” Troy observed the players on the field; some were lean while others were ginormous lean and very small. A loud bell swung around his head; it was the accident. He continued to focus on the players and before he knew it, “Number 21: Troy Archello!” Entran watched Troy run to the field, full of 4 suspicion towards him. There was something about Troy he was wondering about, he wanted to know why Troy looked like an athlete, but didn’t play sports. Zach looked at Entran and they both nodded, they were both thinking the same and then turned their eyes on Troy. He was warming up and preparing for the tryouts of his life. As much as he wanted to join the team, he couldn’t because of it. Once Troy got his jersey and equipment on, he ran into Josh in the locker room; he knew this wasn’t going to end well… Marisia gazed at the face of the girl that once was her best friend in the world, she hugged her with all her might. “Hahaha it’s nice to see you too.” Norma said with an glee tone in her voice. “I missed you…I thought you didn’t want hangout with me anymore…” Marisia was beginning to tear up, but…”Marisia Starlight, time for your tryouts!” She wasn’t ready, but Norma pushed her to the performance area before she could hesitate once again. Marisia was motionless. The crowd was staring at her and then they became uncomfortable. Marisia began with some simple moves and progressed into the extremely difficult ones. She tried closing her eyes, but it wasn’t going well for her at all. Suddenly, a scream was heard all around the school, it sounded like a cry for help. Marisia messed up, but nobody was looking at her anymore, they were more interested on who screamed. They all ran up into the field where the jocks were trying out…it wasn’t something you see every day. “You better put your hands up or this one gets it!” Everyone was shocked as they saw Becky Baker with a gun on the side of her head. Troy didn’t realize what all the commotion was about, he was still in the locker room with a lunatic A.K.A. Josh. “So lover boy, how’s it going..” He slammed Troy into a locker and tried to knee him in his stomach, but Troy moved last second, which lead to Josh hitting the locker with all his force. “I said put your hands up or pretty girl here will have her funeral in a couple of days!” The atmosphere seemed quiet, nobody was talking or moving; it was almost dead. Meanwhile, Troy was running away from an angry, yet disturbing Josh. Troy tackled Josh and had the upper hand. “Josh calm down! This isn’t going to get anywhere if yo-“A gunshot was heard throughout the school and both of them stopped. They realized what was going on and they were the only ones who could save everyone from the mad man outside. Sirens were heard around the area and a quick announcement was made. Students! This is an immediate lockdown! I repeat, this is not a joke, this is an immediate lockdown! Troy peeked from the door and it was correct, everyone was standing still as the figure held up a gun to the Cheerleader. He knew that he to act quickly and not do anything reckless, which he did often. “LET GO OF THE GIRL, OR THINGS WILL GET OUT OF HAND! I REPEAT, LET GO OF THE YOUNG WOMAN!” It was time to act. “10-9-8-” Troy heard faint noises in his head repeating “Don’t Screw up! Don’t Screw up!” “7-6-5-“Both Troy and Josh looked at each other and nodded in agreement. ' “4-3-2-1”.' Chapter 3 Both of the young men dashed through the locker room and began to run to the location were the issue was at. They knew they were going to be caught, but they took the risk to save as many lives as possible. They knew it was a life-death situation; if they succeed, no one will be slaughtered by this lunatic. In the other hand, if they failed, hundreds of lives could be at risk, including theirs. They both went and tackled the figure; Becky ran away, but the battle had just begun. The figure punched Josh in the face and left him unconscious; Troy was left alone to fight. “Time to suffer you wannabe hero, but before I do that-“The figure took out his gun and pointed it at Josh’s head. Without any hesitation, Troy went for another tackled, but it resulted in a kick to the gut. The man began hitting Troy and kicking him at the same time; it wasn’t the best site to be in. It became quiet, time had stopped and everyone was still as stones. Zach looked at Entran with disbelief; their new friend was going to perish for a random girl and possibly the whole school. Entran motioned Zach to follow him and he did. Before they realized, they were behind the mad man. They both stood still and the looked off into the crowd, they were still motionless. “Ready to die kid?” The man said. Troy smirked as he looked at the man. Suddenly the two jumped and tackled down the man. Troy kicked the gun off of his hand and the authorities took over. Marisia ran up to a beaten down Troy and she asked, “Are you ok!? Are you hurt!?” Troy slowly responded, “No. I’ll be ok…just check up on Becky and Josh…” An hour later, Troy was in a hospital, getting checked up by the doctors there. “You’ll be ok. You received a couple of blows to the gut and you broke a rib or two.” Troy smiled and asked, “That’s good. How’s Josh doing?” “Not so great,” responded the doctor. “He’ll be up and running, but he received a concussion when the man hit him.” There was a moment of silence between the two of them. Troy stared at the floor for a bit and when he looked up, two figures were in front of him. “Troy! Are you ok son!?” Troy’s mother seemed very worried about him and stroked his sore, pulp, and red face. Troy looked up the next figure’s face, which seemed serious. “Dad, I can explain-““Don’t say anything, I know what you did. It was reckless and ignorant, you know you could’ve died!?” Troy’s father continued on for another minute and stopped. They both looked at together and the expressions on both of their faces weren’t pleasant. His father came up to him and hugged him firmly. Troy and his father don’t have such a great relationship. They love each other dearly, but the thing is: Troy and his Dad are opposites, they never really agreed on something without some type of discussion or argument. “Son, it was only your first day and you already have gotten yourself into some trouble. You don’t want the same results when-“Troy stopped his dad with a stare. “Dad…Please don’t talk about it.” When Troy arrived to his home, somebody was actually waiting for him. “Troy! Buddy! Are you ok?” As Zach was speaking, he was taking something out of his backpack and tossed it to Troy. Troy stared at the wrapped up baloney/ham/cheese/pickles sandwich that Zach had made for him. “Thanks man, I owe you now.” Troy said. They had a great time and as soon as 9 p.m. crawled up on them, a loud knock on the door was heard. The young athlete and the food lover walked to the door and to their surprise, it was a face they would never expect to see around the area. It was the person who Troy and Josh saved earlier, it was Becky Baker. She was very shy and then said, “Thank you…For saving me. I thought it was the end for me and when you came in, you gave me hope. “Troy threw the leftover sandwich over to Zach and tried to respond as calmly as he could. “I wanted to make that no one would be hurt, including you.” Zach looked at Troy with astonishment. He realized he never asked what Troy’s intentions were during that event; he assumed that he did to be a hero or just did it because he wanted to be him. Becky then proceeded to hug Troy and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “If you need anything…Here’s my number.” Troy grabbed the card while watching Becky walk away. Zach tried to bring Troy back to full concentration so he made many gestures to get his attention. “Troy?” He asked, “Hey buddy, you need to come back from planet crush and get back to planet real life!” Troy quickly snapped out of his thinking and looked at the phone number. “Hey Zach, we should go to the mall one of these days. You in?” Zach responded quickly, “Will there be corndogs and pizzas?!” “You know it buddy.” Troy answered with an enthusiastic tone. The next day came and Troy got up in the morning and checked his clock, it was 7:00 A.M. He knew he wanted to spend his second day of school with Zach and have fun in the classes he had, but his injuries contradicted his thoughts. He got up and put his regular clothes on, brushed his teeth, and fixed up his hair. He noticed when he walked, he began to limp. He looked felt his ribs and he groan, the pain was unexplainable. As soon as he went downstairs, he got his breakfast and turned on his T.V. He switched to certain channels and watched shows that he watched as a child. His mother came up to him and gave him a kiss in the forehead and said, “Troy, you need to take care of yourself, so make sure that you don’t injure yourself to worse conditions. I left you lunch and some snacks that will help you recover. Take care of yourself.” Troy watched his mother walk outside and suddenly, he received a text. “Mr. Gulligan! What event occurred that made the U.S. join WWII?” Zach quickly began to think, but his thoughts were about the day before. “Gulligan, answer the question please. “ Mr. Donatello was trying to be as patient as he could be. “The answer is Pearl Harbor sir.” Zach continued to think about yesterday and he quickly snapped himself to the environment around him. Entran was sitting across the room, focused, but still worried about Troy since he couldn’t check up on him the day before. He felt horrible; he despised himself for not checking up on him. “Why didn’t I? I’m an idiot, a joke, probably even a failure as a friend.” Entran thought. Marisia was looking at the window, not focused at all. She was very worried about Troy; she was hoping he was going to be alright. She began to realize why she cared about Troy so much; she admired the new student. She began to think about his best features, but, she slowly began to worry. “Friends will be taken from you and they will never return.” Troy was bewildered and responded, “Who is this?” No one responded. He began to think about the day he was scarred, it was a rainy day and he was running across the field. He saw two figures which had a little innocent girl, and as soon as they saw him, they ran…. “Class, your homework tonight is to make a timeline which features the big events that occurred before the United States joined WWII. I expect it to be in tip top shape and it shows that you all worked hard on it, not a 5 minute piece of garbage. Class, you’re dismissed.” The school bell rang, signifying that the school day was over. The 3 individuals began to rush to the front of their beloved school and they all decided on something. “Alright,” Entran began saying “We’re going to check up on Troy and make sure he’s okay or if he needs anything since we didn’t check up on him yesterday, excluding Zach. Are you guys in?” Zach and Marisia nodded in agreement and proceeded to walk to the direction where Troy lived. As they began to walk, they noticed something peculiar that all didn’t realize until that moment. Before Troy’s arrival to Bridgewood, none of them ever talked or exchanged words. “Well, I guess we’re all thinking the same.” Zach said, “We’re all doing this because we think Troy is the coolest guy we know, but the reality of it is that we all have stuck by each other the whole time. We shouldn’t just do this for Troy; we should do it for ourselves.” Marisia began to reply, but then stopped. “What is it Marisia?” Entran asked. “Troy is probably the kindest hearted guy I know, but I know Josh is going to do something to him eventually. If I care about him…I feel….” Marisia stopped and bit her lip. Everyone stayed silent until they reached the front porch. “Knock, Knock, Knock….”